A. H. Almaas’s Diamond Approach
Divine Individualism or Mystical Humanism?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v4i1.67Keywords:
Asian religions, mysticism, psychoanalysis, psychospirituality, spiritualityAbstract
A debate over the integration of depth psychology and nondual, particularly Asian, spiritualities has recently engaged academic, therapeutic and spiritual communities. While some evaluations celebrate contemporary Western psychospiritual integrations as psychologically sophisticated forms of modern religiosity, other accounts reject them as psychological dilutions of traditional mysticism. Drawing on fieldwork and discourse analysis, this paper aims to further this discussion by providing a detailed treatment of the issues at stake through analysis of one such tradition, A. H. Almaas’s Diamond Approach. The Diamond Approach provides a useful study of contempo-rary American psychospirituality on two counts. First, it reconciles American concerns with individual development with Asian mystical goals of self-transcendence through an incorporation of Asian and Western religious and secular models of subjectivity. Second, it utilizes psycho-analytic theory—ranging from Freudian to intersubjectivist perspectives—to elaborate on pre-modern, particularly nondual Asian, mysticism.
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References
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—2001a. The Point of Existence: Transformations of Narcissism in Self-Realization. Boston and London: Shambhala.
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Mines, M. 1994. “Conceptualizing the Person: Hierarchical Society and Individual Autonomy in India,” in R. T. Ames, W. Dissanayake and T. P. Kasulis eds. Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 317–34.
Parsons, W. B. 2001. “Themes and Debates in the Psychology-Comparativist Dialogue,” in W. B. Parsons and D. Jonte-Pace eds. Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain. London and New York: Routledge, 229–53.
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Partridge, C. 2004. The Re-Enchantment of the West, Volume 2: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture. New York: T & T Clark International.
Preece, R. 2006. The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life. Ithaca: NY: Snow Lion Publications.
Prothero, S. 1996. The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Rawlinson, A. 1997. The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. Chicago: Open Court.
Rieff, P. 1966. The Triumph of the Therapeutic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Roland, A. 1988. In Search of Self in India and Japan: Towards a Cross-Cultural Psychology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tarrant, J. 1998. The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul and the Spiritual Life. New York: HarperPerennial.
Welwood, J. 2002. Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Personal and Spiritual Transformation. Boston and London: Shambhala.
Urban, H. B. 2003. Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Versluis, A. 1993. American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vitz, P. 1977. Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship. Eerdmans.
—2000. Luminous Night’s Journey, an Autobiographical Fragment. Boston and London: Shambhala.
—2001a. The Point of Existence: Transformations of Narcissism in Self-Realization. Boston and London: Shambhala.
—2001b. The Pearl Beyond Price: Integration of Personality into Being: An Object Relations Approach. Boston and London: Shambhala.
—2002. Spacecruiser Inquiry: True Guidance for the Inner Journey Home. Boston and London: Shambhala.
—2004. The Inner Journey Home. Boston and London: Shambhala.
Bellah, R. N., R. Madsen, W. M. Sullivan, A. Swidler and S. M. Tipton, eds. 1985. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitments in American Life. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Bhattacharyya, K. 1967. “The Status of the Individual in Indian Metaphysics,” in C. A. Moore ed. The Indian Mind: Essentials of Indian Philosophy and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 229–319.
Butler, K. 1991. “Encountering the Shadow in Buddhist America,” in C. Zweig and J. Abrams eds. Meeting the Shadow. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 137–47.
Carrette, J., and R. King. 2005. Selling Spirituality. London and New York: Routledge.
Engler, J. 2003. “Being Somebody and Being Nobody: A Reexamination of theUnderstanding of Self in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism,” in J. Safran ed. Psychoanalysis and Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003, 35–100.
Gyatso, J. 1998. Apparitions of the Self. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hunt, H. T. 2003. Lives in Spirit: Precursors and Dilemmas of a Secular Western Mysticism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Klein, A. 1995. Meeting the Great Bliss Queen. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Kornfield, J. 2000. After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path. New York: Bantham Books.
Kripal, J. J. 2002. “Debating the Mystical as the Ethical: An Indological Map,” in J. J. Kripal and W. G. Barnard eds. Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism. New York: Seven Bridges Press/Chatham House, 15–69.
—2007. Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Lasch, C. 1979. The Culture of Narcissism. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.
Lee, H., and H. Marshall. 2003. “Divine Individualism: Transcending Psychology,” International Journal of Critical Psychology, 8, 13–33.
Mines, M. 1994. “Conceptualizing the Person: Hierarchical Society and Individual Autonomy in India,” in R. T. Ames, W. Dissanayake and T. P. Kasulis eds. Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 317–34.
Parsons, W. B. 2001. “Themes and Debates in the Psychology-Comparativist Dialogue,” in W. B. Parsons and D. Jonte-Pace eds. Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain. London and New York: Routledge, 229–53.
—2008. “Psychologia Perennis and the Academic Study of Mysticism,” in W. B. Parsons, D. Jonte-Pace and S. Henking eds. Mourning Religion. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 97–123.
Partridge, C. 2004. The Re-Enchantment of the West, Volume 2: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture. New York: T & T Clark International.
Preece, R. 2006. The Wisdom of Imperfection: The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life. Ithaca: NY: Snow Lion Publications.
Prothero, S. 1996. The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Rawlinson, A. 1997. The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. Chicago: Open Court.
Rieff, P. 1966. The Triumph of the Therapeutic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Roland, A. 1988. In Search of Self in India and Japan: Towards a Cross-Cultural Psychology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tarrant, J. 1998. The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul and the Spiritual Life. New York: HarperPerennial.
Welwood, J. 2002. Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Personal and Spiritual Transformation. Boston and London: Shambhala.
Urban, H. B. 2003. Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Versluis, A. 1993. American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vitz, P. 1977. Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship. Eerdmans.
Published
2010-01-15
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Gleig, A. (2010). A. H. Almaas’s Diamond Approach: Divine Individualism or Mystical Humanism?. Fieldwork in Religion, 4(1), 67-85. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v4i1.67
